This visible-light image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a pancake-shaped disk of gas around an extremely bright star in our Milky Way galaxy. The disk glows brightly in the light of ionized nitrogen.
The central star is nicknamed "Nasty 1," derived from its catalog name of NaSt1. Nasty 1 is thought to be a Wolf-Rayet star, a massive, rapidly evolving star weighing well over 10 times the mass of our sun. The star is losing its hydrogen-filled outer layers quickly, exposing its super-hot and extremely bright helium-burning core.
Nasty 1 is thought to have a companion, and gravitational interactions between them may have created the gas disk. Both stars are heavily obscured by gas and dust in the disk. Hubble observations suggest that as Nasty 1 sheds its weight, some of the mass is falling onto a companion star and some is leaking into space, forming the disk. The vast structure is nearly 2 trillion miles wide. The disk is clumpy because astronomers think the outbursts occur sporadically. The knot at left of center is an unusually bright clump of gas. The image is tinted blue to bring out details in the disk.
Astronomers were surprised to find the disk-like structure, which has never been seen before around a Wolf-Rayet star in our galaxy. The star may represent a brief transitory stage in the evolution of massive stars.
The Nasty 1 system may be as close as 3,000 light-years from Earth.
The observations were taken in April 2013 with the Wide Field Camera 3.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J. Mauerhan (University of California, Berkeley)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NaSt1, Wolf-Rayet 122, WR 122 |
| Object Description | Emission-line Star with Nebula |
| R.A. Position | 18h 52m 17.55s |
| Dec. Position | 00° 59' 44.28" |
| Constellation | Aquila |
| Distance | Between 3,300 - 9,800 light-years (1 - 3 kpc) away |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data of WR 122 were obtained from the HST proposal : J. Mauerhan (University of California, Berkeley), N. Smith (Steward Observatory/University of Arizona), and S. Van Dyk (IPAC/Caltech). The science team comprises: J. Mauerhan (University of California, Berkeley), N. Smith (Steward Observatory/University of Arizona), S. Van Dyk (IPAC/Caltech), K. Morzinski, L. Close, P. Hinz, and J. Males (Steward Observatory/University of Arizona), and T. Rodigas (Carnegie Institute of Washington). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | April 27, 2013 |
| Filters | F645N (Continuum) and F658N ([N II]) |
| About The Image | |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
